Malmesbury teen accused of child sex crimes fit to stand trial - IOL

The Malmesbury Magistrate's Court, where a Valkenberg report finding the 16-year-old fit to stand trial was handed in on Monday. He will apply for bail next week Thursday.

A 16-year-old boy charged over his alleged role in the violent online network 764 is fit to stand trial, a report from Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital has found.

The report found he had no mental illness and no intellectual disability.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the finding was given to the Malmesbury Magistrate's Court on Monday.

"The medical report indicates that he does not have any mental illness and has no intellectual disability," Ntabazalila said.

"He was found to be fit to stand trial and follow proceedings.

"The matter was adjourned to [next week Thursday] for the proceedings of bail application."

The boy spent 30 days under observation at the hospital after he was admitted on September 1.

He may not be named because he is a minor.

Magistrate Anthony McKenzie ordered the observation in August on the recommendation of a district surgeon, who examined the boy two days after his first court appearance.

He has not applied for bail since his arrest.

The teenager was arrested at a house on an upmarket golf estate in Malmesbury on August 17, after the FBI, the US embassy in Pretoria and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children alerted SA police to a 764 target in the country.

The operation was led by the police's national serial and electronic crime investigations team, working with agents from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the US embassy.

He was initially charged with 11 counts, and four more were added in August to take the total to 15.

They include the sexual grooming of a child, compelled sexual assault, the sexual exploitation of a child, the creation, possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material, sending a data message inciting violence, and animal cruelty.

McKenzie has sealed the charge sheet and every order in the case to protect the accused, the complainants, and his family, and proceedings are held behind closed doors.

764 is an online network whose members target children on social media, gaming apps and chat servers, coax an explicit photograph or video out of them, then use it to blackmail them into producing more, with demands escalating to sexual acts, self-harm and killing family pets.

The FBI has classified people linked to it as nihilistic violent extremists and said in February it was investigating more than 350 people in the US over alleged links to the network.